9th-12th Coral Reef Lessons – Conservation plan
Lesson
Topic
Summary of Objectives
Group/Org.
A Reef of Your
Own
(176 kb)
Coral reef biology
Students will be able to describe and explain
the importance of asexual and sexual
reproductive strategies to reef-building corals.
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Bad Algae!
(177 kb)
Harmful algal blooms
Students will be able to compare and
contrasts ways in which algal blooms may be
harmful.
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Cool Corals
(278 kb)
Biology, ecology
of Lophelia corals
Students will describe the basic morphology
of Lophelia corals, explain their significance
and interpret observations on the behavior
of Lophelia polyps.
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Current: Bad for
Divers Good for
Corals
(218 kb)
Currents & precious
coral communities
Students will be able to describe major forces
driving ocean currents and discuss the
general effects of topography on current
velocity.
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Do Not Bleach!
(482 kb)
Coral bleaching
Students will be able to investigate possible
causes for coral bleaching.
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Feeding in the
Flow
(347 kb)
Currents & feeding in
corals
Students will be able to describe ways in
which current flow may affect the feeding
efficiency of particle-feeding organisms.
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Fix It!
(151 kb)
Repairing damaged
resources
Students will be able to give examples of
natural events and human activities that
damage coastal resources.
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History's
Thermometers
(302 kb)
Deep-water corals
and climate change
Students will be able to explain the concept of
paleoclimatological proxies, learn how oxygen
isotope ratios are related to water
temperature and interpret data to make
inferences about climate change.
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How Does Your
(Coral) Garden
Grow?
(288 kb)
Growth rate
estimates based on
isotope ratios
Students will identify and briefly explain two
methods for estimating the age of hard corals
and learn how oxygen isotope ratios are
related to water temperature and interpret
data.
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Is It Getting Hot in
Here?
(228 kb)
Climate change
Students will identify ways in which climate
change could affect human communities and
find evidence of impeding climate change.
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Keeping Watch
on Coral Reefs
(440 kb)
Coral reef monitoring
Students will be able to identify and explains
major threats to coral reefs.
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Let's Go to the
Video Tape
(305 kb)
Communities on
deep water coral
habitats
Students will identify some of the fauna
groups found in deep sea coral communities,
infer possible reasons for observed
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distribution of groups of animals in these
communities, and discuss the biological
diversity.
No Escape
(1.21 mb)
Larvae dispersal in
sea mounts
Students will learn to use field data to
evaluate a hypothesis about the influence of a
water circulation cell on larvae.
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No Fishing?
(190 kb)
Protecting natural &
cultural resources
Students will be able to describe a process for
evaluating the effectiveness of marine
protected areas (MPAs).
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Protect This!
(580 kb)
Designing MPAs
Students will describe how networks of
marine protected areas (MPAs) can protect
biodiversity.
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Seals, Corals &
Dollars
(451 kb)
Monk seals, coral
and economy
Students will be able to describe the
ecological relationship between Hawaiian
monk seals and deep-water precious corals.
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Water Parks
(369 kb)
U.S. MPAs
Students will be able to identify reasons for
establishing marine protected areas (MPAs).
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What's Down
There?
(392 kb)
Mapping coral reef
habitats
Students will be able to access data on
selected coral reefs, manipulate these data to
characterize these reefs, and explain the
need for baseline data in coral reef monitoring
programs.
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Who Has the
Data?
(228 kb)
Coral reef monitoring
Students will be able to access data on
selected coral reefs and manipulate these
data to characterize these reefs.
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Who's Your
Neighbor?
(282 kb)
Groups in deep sea
coral reefs
Students will be able to describe common
feeding strategies used by benthic animals.
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